


Harry gets the call

by Khalid



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: Heart Attack, Hurt/Comfort, Other, Reconciliation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-25
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2019-03-23 21:13:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13796478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khalid/pseuds/Khalid
Summary: Harry gets an unexpected call and comforts someone he least expects





	Harry gets the call

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t own Harry Potter, if I was J.K., I don’t think I’d be on ao3.
> 
> These characters are canon. Including Vernon’s insane obesity.
> 
> The timeline is a bit after Harry and Ginny are married.

The telephone jangled, sending the cat careening down the stairs, all eyes and claws.

“Harry! Telly!” Ginny yelled down after the cat. Harry came bounding up. Of course he knew it was the telephone, what else would it be? And he answered quickly. 

“Hullo?”  
“Harry, it’s Dudley.”  
Harry had once tried explaining to his cousin that he was literally the only person in the planet to have Harry’s number, but had given it up after the third try. 

“Honestly, I don’t know why you even keep that infernal thing.” Ginny grumbled behind his back as Harry tried to calm his cousin down enough to get to the point. The man was in hysterics.

“Dudley!” He finally yelled, “What’s going on?!?”  
“It’s dad, he’s gone!”  
“What missing?”  
“No you toad! That sort of weird stuff only happens to your lot! Dads had a heart attack!”

At this, Dudley broke down sobbing into the phone. Harry couldn’t hear anyone on the other line consoling him.  
“Where’s your mum?”  
“She’s at the hospital. I just left to pack up some stuff so we could stay there tonight…”  
the pause was nearly deafening, “Harry, I didn’t know who else to call.”

Harry’s heart broke. Dudley had grown up to be very like his father in so many ways and they hadn’t gotten together much after they’d been forced out of Surrey, but Harry was the only person Dudley could call when his dad was sick.

“Alright mate, I’ll be there in a minute. Don’t go anywhere ok?” Silence from the other end. “Were you nodding to the phone?” Another short silence, then a sheepish “yeah”

Harry got Dudley off the phone after a few minutes, it was clear the man wasn’t really in any state to be alone. 

“I’ve got to go out,” he tossed to Ginny as he grabbed his coat and wand.  
“But where-” she stomped at the empty space he had left behind. Not even an explanation. Somebody had better be dying! Well, dinner wasn’t going to cook itself, she supposed.

Harry apparated into an ally near Dudley’s apartment and walked out, looking for all the world as though he’d just climbed out of a car up the block. The thought of saying goodbye to Uncle Vernon flitted briefly across his mind, but they had parted ways years ago and he didn’t really pay too much mind to the thought. He was more concerned how his cousin, who had never really cut the umbilical, would be able to hold up to the sudden shock.

Harry knocked on Dudley’s door and let himself in when he heard a grunt that could have been “come in”. The overstuffed armchair in the living room, a remnant from Harry’s childhood, barely held his cousin’s giant frame. Diet and exercise had kept the boy from following his father to obesity as he turned into a man, but Dudley was never going to be small.

“Heya, big D…” Harry approached cautiously. He never knew what to expect from his family at the best of times, and grief had a way of doing weird things to even the best people. Dudley looked up, his haggard and nearly empty expressions reeling Harry back two decades to the dementor attack. 

“What am I gonna do?” He groaned. 

“I dunno, you just gotta keep on going, man.”

Harry put his hand on Dudley’s shoulder, the only comforting thing he could think of between the two of them, and they just sat in silence as the clock on the wall ticked. 

“Mum!” Dudley bolted up out of the chair, so suddenly that Harry yelped in surprise. “I left mum there in the hospital! Alone, with him!” Dudley was frantic, grabbing Harry by the arms and shaking him. “I gotta go! I gotta be there with her…”

Dudley looked around the room in confusion, muttering about his bag when Harry realized it was what he’d sat on beside the chair when he first came in. He picked it up, holding it out to Dudley, who took it looking at Harry, as though he wasn’t sure why Harry was there.

“Come on Big D, lets get you to the hospital to see your mum ok?” Harry figured he’d better drive given the state his cousin was in.

They drove in silence, Dudley staring out the window blankly. All his life, Dudley had been a passenger, now he suddenly has to drive his own life. It must be terrifying, Harry realized. 

At the hospital, Petunia gushed over Dudley as usual, perhaps a bit more, Harry placed Dudley’s bag by the chair and turned to walk out the door.

“Harry, don’t leave yet…” his aunt’s typical snappish tone was softened slightly. He looked toward her, she was reaching out to him though the hand dropped when he looked. She moved her lips soundlessly for a moment, searching for the words. “You came… for your cousin…?” Harry nodded. “He didn’t hate you... You should know that…” she trailed off, looking over to where the giant body of his uncle lay hooked to tubes and beeping monitors. “It’s was always my fault…” she whispered, almost more to herself. 

Perhaps as a child Harry would have ignored this silent admission, and remained petulant. He had lost too much though. Even the remote connection to Dudley through his spiteful parents, a connection not dissimilar to his relationship with Draco Malfoy, seemed better than cutting all his ties. Even if leaving behind his muggle life was easier in the short term. 

Harry stepped to the chair and gently squeezed his cousin’s giant shoulder. “I’ll be here if he needs me, Aunt Petunia.” Leaving Dudley’s keys on the table, he stared straight into Petunias eyes as he diapparated back home. 

“Harry Potter, would you like to explain yourself now?” Ginny’s stern voice cut through his moment of silence as he stared out at the woods behind their big house. Her tone softened when she saw his face. “Dudley?” 

“Yeah. It was Uncle Vernon. I guess they have him on some sort of life support.”  
“Couldn’t his heart be fixed?”  
Harry thought about St. Mungo’s. Heart attacks really couldn’t hold a witch or a wizard back when they could magically remove any sort of physical ailments, but he knew his uncle probably better than anyone, “No, it’s not what he would want. Better to let them have their muggle life.”

Resigned, Harry turned toward the house. “Need help with dinner?”  
“Oh, Harry” Ginny looked at the sad form of her husband walking to the house. Even as much pain as the Dursleys had inflicted on him in childhood, he was still so kind to care about their pain.


End file.
